The semantics and pragmatics of air quotation

Bibliographic Data

ID21501922
AuthorsKate Hazel Stanton (0000-0002-1513-6280, Department of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-07-07
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMind & Language (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-1064 • E-ISSN: 1468-0017
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/mila.70042
OpenAlexW7167592923
LanguageEN
References cited38

Much recent work on the semantics and pragmatics of gesture has focused on gestures that are both iconic and whose contribution is pragmatically derived. This paper explores the interpretation of air quotation, a gesture that I will argue falls squarely into neither category. I claim that the association of air quotation with orthographic quotation has conventionalized and that this facilitates its use as a quotational shield : A pragmatic marker that allows the speaker to distance themselves from the enquoted content. I then explore two case studies to exemplify and refine the analysis

Gesture · Pragmatics · Relevance theory · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Multisensory perception and integration

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